THIS IS WHY "THEY" (THE BRITS UNDER THE EMPIRE ORDERS?— THIS IS MY GUESS) BLEW UP THE NORDSEA PIPELINES... TO PREVENT ANY RETURN BY THE GERMANS TO THE RUSSIAN GAS.....

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW •••••••••••••••••••••••

BY Salman Rafi Sheikh

In March 2022, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported that “Europe is the new hotspot” of global arms import. While this development is attributed to the ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine (US/EU/NATO), what’s equally, or even more, important to understand is how most of this European purchase is coming from the US and how the latter has turned the conflict into a money-making machine. The US is responsible for the so-called ‘energy crisis’ in Europe and, by selling expensive US gas to Europe, is making a lot of money. Of course, the US told the Europeans that doing so was necessary to reduce their critical dependence on Moscow. The Europeans, in their bid to ‘punish’ Russia, decided to increase their dependence on the US. This is now turning into an ugly issue, as European powers, as reports in the western mainstream media show, are now directly accusing the US of profiteering from war.

This criticism is based not just on the fact that Europe is buying expensive US gas and the latter is profiting from it. In fact, it is based upon the fact that Europe is now too dependent on the US to prevent its economic collapse. If Europe’s dependency on the US continues to increase, it will only come at the cost of its strategic autonomy.

Secondly, this is not just about gas. If gas is linked to economy, Europe’s increasing military purchase from the US is directly linked to its defence and security, or at least this is how it is being projected. This dependence in the defence field is most easily evident from the German purchase of F-35 fighter jets from the US. While the US is going to make a whole lot of money out of this multi-billion dollar deal, strings attached to this deal show how this deal is a direct reinforcement of European dependency on the US.

Martin Kroell, the President of the Federal Association of the German Aerospace Industry (BDLI), was quoted to have said that Germany, even after purchasing these jets, would not have the rights to maintain and repair these jets in German. They will be maintained “in other European countries in the network of the US Armed Forces, or by the US companies Lockheed … this creates a dangerous dependency.”

Let’s not forget that this sale happened, first and foremost, when the US started putting pressure in early 2021, when the Russia-Ukraine conflict began, on European nations to increase their defence capacity. But, using the pressure of this conflict, the US authorities managed to make a deal that did not give much leeway to the German authorities to really protect their interests. As another report confirms, the Germans made an ‘error’ in not demanding the involvement of their own “arms industry in the maintenance, repair, and support of these expensive aircraft.”

This is not Germany alone. Finland, for instance, is another country entering the phase of dangerous dependency on the US. It has already decided to buy 64 Block 4 F-35s for US$9.4 billion. Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Finland has upped its weapon purchase, with, unsurprisingly, most of this purchase coming from the US.

While the conflict in Ukraine has led to many deals worth billions of USD, there is a growing fear in the continent that the US is now trying to start a new crisis with China. Such a conflict would create additional problems for Europe.

But the rhetoric being produced – and effectively used – by the US for Europe is to reduce dependence on China. Europe of course is concerned about this form of geopolitics. As Charles Michael, President of the European Council who recently met Xi, said in a tweet: “The EU promotes its interests and values in the world. With China, engaging openly on all aspects of our relationship is the only way forward.”

China, too, understands that Europe is far from in agreement with the US over a joint China policy. Therefore, Xi was candid enough to tell the EU last week that the bloc should keep up its investment in China, adding that China and the EU must jointly “oppose de-coupling.”

But while the EU is fighting the US over forcing a policy on the EU vis-à-vis the China question and the economic consequences it could have for Europe in the long term, the US continues to make policies that directly impact the EU economy. The latest irritant is certainly the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which gives tax breaks for components used in electric cars provided they are made in (North) America.

While the EU-based companies could set up factories in the US, this would effectively mean that these companies will add to the US economy more than the EU’s economy. In other words, the EU’s capital will be used to add to the US capital at the expense of the EU’s own economic health.

This pattern is similar to the way the EU capital is being used via expensive gas sales and weapon systems to help the US economy. This is precisely how the conflict in Ukraine has turned out to be a major source of profit for the US state.

What can the EU do? The Europeans are unlikely to be able to break out of this dependency relationship without first developing an independent global outlook. Imagine the economic scenario in the EU if, instead of supporting the US bid to expand NATO, it had taken an independent line. The EU did not take that line. Now, the EU now accuses the US of its energy crisis. The question is: can it translate this anger into a concrete policy?

Salman Rafi Sheikh, research-analyst of International Relations and Pakistan’s foreign and domestic affairs, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.“

READ MORE:

https://journal-neo.org/2022/12/12/washington-wants-europe-s-total-dependence-on-the-us/

READ FROM TOP.

"TOO LATE" SHE CRIED....

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW •••••••••••••••••••••••

BY Barbara Slavin

The definition of insanity, it is often said, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Yet that is exactly what U.S. and other Western policymakers have done in imposing broad economic sanctions against adversarial and otherwise problematic regimes.

The results have generally not been positive. Instead of persuading authoritarian and aggressive leaders to change their ways, broad sanctions have reinforced anti-democratic tendencies and incentivized nuclear and other proliferation. Meanwhile, ordinary citizens of these countries suffer in terms of declining standards of living and increased government repression, while a shrinking elite prospers from control over limited resources.  

We have seen this movie over and over in places as distant and distinct as Venezuela and Iran, Cuba, Syria, and North Korea.

The latter country is a particularly depressing poster child for sanctions. Since it began developing and testing nuclear weapons — after the George W. Bush administration withdrew from a non-proliferation deal known as the Agreed Framework in 2002 — North Korea has been hit with wave after wave of sanctions and has become increasingly isolated. While there is no mass starvation of the sort that killed as many as two million people in the 1990s, there is serious food insecurity with many North Koreans eating only one meal a day, according to well-informed sources.

Using COVID-19 as an excuse, the government of Kim Jong-un has refused access to international aid agencies such as the World Food Program and made it more difficult for North Koreans to learn about the outside world or to escape as refugees. The China-North Korea border, which was once relatively porous, is now hermetically sealed, with, informed sources say, 169 watchtowers and two barbed-wire perimeters preventing North Koreans from reaching and crossing the Yalu River and eventually making their way to South Korea via third countries.

Meanwhile, North Korea has conducted multiple missile launches this year and restarted a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon that is a likely radiation catastrophe in the making. Funds for these endeavors come from stealing crypto currency and other crimes that sanctions incentivize. Kim, the grandson of North Korea’s founder, appears to be grooming a fourth generation to maintain control over this small nation of 25 million people, with the support of China which would rather have a nuclear pariah as its neighbor than a unified, prosperous and democratic Korean peninsula.

Iran is another example of sanctions run amok. Multilateral sanctions preceding the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action may have played a role in encouraging successful nuclear negotiations, but they lost their purpose when the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 while Iran was in full compliance. Rather than negotiate a better deal, the Iranian regime has advanced its nuclear program to the point where Iran could produce sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon in a matter of days. Iran continues to support militias in Iraq and Yemen, props up the repressive regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and maintains close ties with Lebanon’s powerful anti-Western, anti-Israel Hezbollah. Iran has also developed increasingly sophisticated missiles and drones, despite long-time U.S. and multilateral trade restrictions on weapons and dual use trade. Iran has supplied drones and rockets to the Houthis in Yemen and is now providing drones to Russia to use in its aggression against Ukraine.

The domestic political situation in Iran has also deteriorated under sanctions. Trump’s trashing of the JCPOA destroyed the political fortunes of those within the Iranian regime who supported the deal and ushered in a unitary hard-right administration whose efforts to reinforce laws requiring women to wear headscarves and modest clothing have now boomeranged spectacularly. The widespread protests that broke out in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16, 2022, in the custody of the so-called “morality police,” have led to new sanctions on Iran linked to human rights violations which are sensibly targeted. However, negotiations over reviving the JCPOA, which would bring relief of broader sanctions on Iran’s banks, oil exports and manufacturing, are moribund.

While corruption and mismanagement are also at fault, sanctions have had a major role in Iran’s economic decline. The Iranian people have grown increasingly impoverished as their currency’s value has tanked, inflation has soared, and trade and investment have dwindled. More than a third of the nation of more than 80 million people is now classified as poor, by the government’s own standards, with the decline occurring since the introduction of broad sanctions about a decade ago.

Iran trade expert Bijan Khajehpour wrote recently that, “the continued disempowerment of the middle class will add to the economic erosion that the country is set to experience due to a lack of infrastructure investments.” Yet to lift sanctions now would cause an uproar because it would also put more resources into the hands of a hated regime. Unfortunately, that regime has a monopoly over what little resources Iran earns.

Other countries that have faced such broad embargos, such as Cuba, Syria, and Venezuela, have also not changed for the better. Recently the Biden administration has relaxed restrictions on U.S. investment in Venezuelan oil production, to compensate for efforts to choke off oil exports by another sanctioned pariah, Russia, which continues its aggression in Ukraine.

Sanctions proponents suggest that these penalties will encourage a change in regime policies if not a change in regimes themselves. But the link between sanctions and regime change is tenuous and sanctions often seem to prolong the worst dictatorships, not overturn them.

So why do sanctions keep being imposed? As virtue signaling? As a substitute for war? To placate domestic political constituencies? All of the above?

There are many reasons, but the results do not seem to justify the means. Will politicians ever acknowledge the facts and change course?

READ MORE:

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/12/10/when-will-the-us-learn-that-sanctions-dont-solve-its-problems/

READ FROM TOP.

THIS ARTICLE BY SLAVIN IS HALF-PREGNANT.... THE ONLY "PARIAH" IN THIS WHOLE SANCTION BUSINESS IS THE US EMPIRE, LED BY THE PENTAGON. INSANE AS IT IS, THE US EMPIRE, THE PENTAGON, HAS ENOUGH FIREPOWER TO PUSH SHIT THROUGH A BRICKWALL.... ALL THE OTHER COUNTRIES ARE TRYING TO SURVIVE AS BEST THEY CAN, BY MAKING THEIR OWN UMBRELLAS.....

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW...........